ORGANIZATION 75 



war the attention of the farmers was diverted by more pressing 

 issues and by the prevailing high prices of agricultural prod- 

 ucts, 1 but unrest began to manifest itself again in the later 

 sixties, a number of local clubs were formed, and in 1870, a 

 Producers' Convention, made up largely of farmers, met in 

 Bloomington to consider the transportation question. 2 Finally, 

 in the fall of 1872, a call was issued by the Union Farmers' Club 

 of Avon for delegates to meet at Kewanee, October 16, for the 

 purpose of forming a permanent state organization. By this 

 time the order of Patrons of Husbandry had made its appearance 

 in the state, and it was planned to include both the clubs and the 

 granges in the proposed central union. The Kewanee conven- 

 tion was attended by delegates from only thirteen clubs and 

 granges, but it got the movement under way by appointing a 

 state central committee on organization. Willard C. Flagg of 

 Moro, a member of the state senate and a prominent horti- 

 culturist, was the chairman of this' committee. On November 

 1 6, 1872, he published in the Prairie Farmer a request for all 

 clubs, granges, horticultural and agricultural associations in 

 the state to send him the names of their officers and other informa- 

 tion. Following this up, the committee issued a call on January 

 n, 1873, for a meeting of delegates from all such local bodies 

 at Bloomington, January 15 and 16. At this convention, 275 

 regularly appointed delegates from clubs and granges organized 

 themselves as the Illinois State Farmers' Association; adopted 

 a constitution in which the object of the organization was said 

 to be the promotion of the moral, intellectual, social, and ma- 

 terial welfare of the farmers; and elected as officers Hon. W. C. 

 Flagg, president; S. M. Smith, secretary; Duncan Mackay, 

 treasurer; and one vice-president for each congressional district. 3 



Periam, The Grounds-well, 204-206. The state fair was being held in Centralia at 

 this time. See Illinois Slate Journal, September 15, 22, 1858. 



1 See Periam, The Grounds-well, 222. 



2 See below, p. 127. 



3 Testimony of W. C. Flagg, in Windom Committee, Report on Transportation 

 Routes to the Seaboard, ii. 646; Prairie Farmer, xliii. 316, 364 (October 5, 26, Novem- 

 ber 16, 1872), xliv. 9, 12, 25 (January n, 25, 1873); Periam, The Groundswell, 

 chs. xix-xx. 



